


Ayumi's Guardian Angel

by SexyEzekielTDI



Category: Corpse Party (Video Game), Corpse Party: Tortured Souls
Genre: One-Sided Relationship
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-11-27
Updated: 2015-11-27
Packaged: 2018-05-03 16:50:00
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Major Character Death
Chapters: 4
Words: 6,337
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5298926
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SexyEzekielTDI/pseuds/SexyEzekielTDI
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ayumi keeps being saved by an invisible person she calls her Guardian Angel. She has a feeling that she knew him at one time, but can't completely remember. What will happen when she does? What will she do to be able to hear him? How far will she go? What will happen when Naomi remembers as well?</p>
<p>(Based off the Anime with my own made up scenes)</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Stop Walking into the Street!!

"Shinozaki.......stop......"

Ayumi froze with a soft gasp, one foot off the curb. She had just started to walk across the street, when she heard a soft voice out of nowhere. Shrugging it off as her imagination, she went to take another step. All of a sudden, she had the feeling of a pair of hands on her shoulders, holding her in place. Everytime she tried to move away, the grip tightened. "Are you deaf? Stop walking into the freaking street!", the voice yelled at her. Startled, she looked around her but, there was no one she could see. The voice was oddly familiar, but she couldn't remember why it was familiar. She couldn't recall ever hearing that voice before. It was obviously male, but it wasn't too deep and it wasn't too high. It was perfectly in between.

Ayumi looked up at the sound of squealing tires. She watched, her eyes wide, as an out of control car sped passed her before crashing into a tree. She realized, with horror building in her heart, that if she had been walking across the street, that car would have hit and killed her. She felt the hands leave her shoulders and had the sensation of a person taking a step back. With heart in her throat, she walked across the street. She looked back over her shoulder at the other side of the street. For a moment, she thought she saw a teenager with pale blonde hair, wearing the male uniform of Kisaragi Academy. When she looked again to confirm what she saw, he was nowhere to be seen.

A few hours later, she was lying in her bed, wondering if she had imagined the whole thing. But then again, how do you imagine and apparition that saves your life when you didn't know you needed to be saved. You don't, that's the thing. She started thinking about the voice. How familiar it had been. "Where have I heard that voice before? Did I know that boy that it belonged to? Were we friends? Classmates maybe?", she wondered out loud. "If we were friends, maybe I have a picture of him....but where?" She got out of bed and searched her room, trying to find any picture of the boy with blonde hair. "Where is it? Maybe I did imagine him.....oh wait, what's this?" Out of the bottom of her closet, she found a picture of nine people. Oddly enough, all the faces were blackened out except for her and her best friend Naomi. Seven people she couldn't remember. Seven people that she had forgot even existed. She studied the picture closely, looking at each blacked-out face. She counted four brunettes, one black haired boy, and one blonde boy. She gasped, studying the blonde's hair more closely. It was him, she was sure of it now. "But who was he?", she muttered to herself. "Wait...Why do I keep using past tense when I think about him? Is....Is he dead? Are they all dead? Why are all their faces blackened out? Why can't I remember any of them?" She sighed and placed the picture on her desk. "I'll deal with this some more tomorrow..."

The next day at school, Ayumi thought about asking Naomi if she knew anything about the picture. Then she decided not to for one reason. Naomi already thought she was crazy because she felt vibes from some of the desks in their classroom. Five empty desks that had been empty for as long as she could remember. The desk behind her gave off the darkest vibes in her opinion. She felt them all day long, every day she was school. Every once and awhile she could feel a chill go down her spine from them. She couldn't understand why she felt these things. She took out the picture of her "classmates". She found herself once again looking at the blonde boy with an arm behind his head. 'Did he really save me from being run over? Why would he do that? Were we close friends? Ugh, this is so frustrating!', she thought before putting the picture away.

When no one was looking, she turned around and examined the desk behind her. At first, she noticed nothing out of the ordinary. It was just a regular wooden desk. Then as she looked closer, she noticed something carved into a bottom corner of the desk. There were two letters, most likely someone's initials. On even closer inspection, after making sure no one was watching her, she saw that it was a 'Y' and a 'K'. "Y.K.", she murmured. "Y.K.." She turned back around, thinking. 'Y.K.....Why does that seem familiar as well....Y....K.....hmm....Y....K......Kish...inu....ma?' She sat up perfectly straight, her eyes wide. Her subconscious had spewed what appeared to be nonsense, but was in fact....a name? 'Kishinuma? Is that his name? I feel like a hole in my memory was just filled in...not a very big hole, but still a decent sized hole....' She glanced over at Naomi for the fifth time that day. 'Should I ask her? I know she'd think I was crazy...but what if she doesn't? No, I already decided on this. She definitely would think I was crazier than she already thought I was....' She sighed, paying attention to the teacher again.

Invisible to every living person in the room, a blonde teenager with grey eyes was sitting in the seat behind Ayumi. He watched her closely, making sure she was safe. If anything happened to her....if he failed again.....it would be like dying for a second time. He gently stroked the scar over his right eye, remembering his dying thought: 'Please live on, Shinozaki.....please escape....I love you.....' He exhaled out of his nose, dropping his hand back into his lap. 'Stop dwelling on the past so much, Yoshiki...She just remembered your last name...dwell on how happy that should make you feel...or how this teacher is horrible compared to Yui-Sensei....or how sad it is that Nakashima doesn't notice Satoshi and Shinohara watching over her....how nobody remembers....nevermind just don't think at all...' he thought with a sigh that no one but his fellow dead friends heard. Satoshi glanced over at him with a questioning look in his brown eyes. Yoshiki just smiled sadly and shook his head. Satoshi smiled back the same way and returned his attention to Naomi.

Deciding that Ayumi was safe for right now, he let his gaze travel around the classroom. He saw Morishige and Mayu sitting in their old seats, as well as Satoshi and Seiko sitting in theirs. As he looked towards the teacher's podium, he had to bite his lower lip to keep himself from laughing at Ms. Yui who was giving her replacement a dirty look. He looked down at his transparent hands, his gaze suddenly sad. 'Why did I have to die? Why did any of us have to die? This is so unfair....especially that Satoshi could be alive with Shinozaki and Nakashima right now if he hadn't used that creep's paper scrap instead of his own...he wouldn't have lost his forearms and his hands....he wouldn't have bled to death on that walkway leading to the second wing of that cursed school.....he wouldn't be here with the rest of us that died horrible deaths....I wish that none of us had died....I wish we had never done that stupid charm.....I wish for things that will never ever come true....' , he thought, feeling the temper he had been known for when he was alive burning in his silent, unbeating heart.

Ayumi shivered, feeling that familiar chill go down her spine. For some reason she didn't understand, the vibes the desk behind her gave off were darker than they normally were. They felt almost like the vibes a person who is upset and angry usually gives off. But that didn't make sense, since that desk was always empty. Or was it? She took a quick glance behind her to confirm that the desk was empty. It was how it normally looked, not a single person sitting in it. This confused her so much, she was starting to feel frustrated again. 'The heck with sounding like I'm crazy! I'm going to talk to Naomi about this! I'll talk to her during lunch...'

Once lunch time rolled around, Ayumi sat with Naomi at their usual table. She wasn't sure how to approach the subject at first. After a few minutes of thinking, she decided to just go for it. "Hey Naomi? There's something that I need to get off my chest, but you might think I'm crazy...well, crazier than you probably already think I am, anyway..." Naomi looked up from eating her lunch, both eyebrows raised. "Um, okay? What's up?", she asked. Ayumi took a deep breath then told her all about what had happened yesterday after school. She told her about the invisible person that had saved her life, about the picture she had found, even about the weird feeling she kept having. She finished by telling her about what had happened when she saw the initials. Naomi was looking at her with wide eyes, her face pale. "Wow....you really are crazy..but then, maybe I am too. I had a similar experience, except I keep getting the feeling that someone is watching me all the time...maybe more than one person...but I can't see them..", she said softly. Ayumi smiled sadly. "Do you think we did know who ever they are at one point in time?", she asked. Naomi shrugged. "I don't know maybe...but how could we have forgotten everything about these people, if they are indeed real?" Ayumi shrugged too. "I don't know...but I plan on finding out...no matter what..", she said with her mind made up. 'Maybe I can find out who saved my life....and why he saved me in the first place....'


	2. Run!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ayumi remembers.....everything.....

As Ayumi walked home from school, she thought about all the ways she could find out about the people her and Naomi had sensed. The people they had forgotten. As she walked, she could almost sense someone walking beside her. That person was looking around for any dangers, which was what he was supposed to do anyway. Ayumi pressed a finger against her lips as she thought. 'Could there possibly be other clues around somewhere that might stimulate those memories that have been erased..? Something that has a powerful memory attached to it....a phrase or maybe an object that would be enough to cause me to remember....hmm....' She was so focused on her thoughts that she didn't notice a man hidden in the shadows, stalking her every step. So she was startled out of her thoughts by the voice of the now named apparition. "Run Shinozaki!!", came Kishinuma's voice, yelling at her in an almost panicky way. "Huh?!" Suddenly, she felt a pair of hands on her back, pushing her forward. "Run, dammit!!", he yelled at her. She listened, starting to run, although she didn't understand why she needed to run. "Don't look back, don't stop, just run as fast as you can! There's someone following you!" Oh. She quickened her steps, running at full speed. "I don't know how long I can run like this!" She gasped, her lungs already starting to burn from exertion. For some reason, this was very familiar to her. Her having to run like this to escape from something or someone. Even the words yelled at her by her apparition. It was like she'd done this before.

Once she couldn't run anymore, she ducked into an alleyway and sat down. "He's gone..." He whispered to her once more then fell silent. She gasped for air as her mind whirled. She had the strongest feeling of Deja Vu at that moment. The running, his words.....

"Run Shinozaki! We have to get away from him!" Kishinuma yelled at her as they ran down a dirty and bloody hallway. She looked at her companion and saw the fear and determination in his grey eyes. "I know! But I don't know how long we can keep running without having to stop!", she gasped back. "Don't worry about that right now! Just run! Don't look back, don't stop, just run as fast as you can!" He encouraged. She nodded and even though she had a strong urge to look back at their pursuer, she fought it and looked ahead of her as she ran....and ran.....and....

Ayumi blinked, reality coming back to her. She was in an alley, having just escaped someone who was following her. 'Another hole filled...', she thought, her heart pounding. 'I did know him...but where were we and who was chasing us? What happened to Kishinuma?' She got to her feet and brushed the dirt off of her uniform skirt. 'I know he was possibly killed, but how? And who killed him? Why was he killed? Why is it that when I finally get an answer, I have even more questions than before?' She sighed and left the alley, continuing her walk home. She could sense Kishinuma walking calmly beside her again. 'He's kind of like my very own guardian angel in a way...' She thought with a soft smile. 'Why does the thought of him as an angel make me want to laugh?'

Once she got home and said her greetings to her parents and older sister, Ayumi went up to her room. 'Does he follow me home?', she thought as she put her backpack on the floor. She shrugged the thought away and sat on her bed. 'Since I found the picture in here, maybe I'll find something else too...this whole thing is so frustrating..ugh..' She stood up again and glanced around the room, a finger against her lips. She then began to search her room, starting with her closet. She searched for anything that wasn't familiar to her. Anything that might trigger a memory of anything from the point in time that she forgot. Anything at all. She searched and searched and searched but wasn't really finding anything. She searched in every drawer, in her bookshelf, then finally under her bed. Inside a shoe box, she found a small scrap of white paper that made her fingertips tingle. 'What's this?' It looked like a piece of a paper doll that she had seen her sister use once in one of her occult rituals. But it couldn't be the same doll. Her sister had burned the one she had been using. 'So where did this piece come from? And why did I have it in a shoebox under my bed?' She could feel an odd, dark vibe coming from the scrap of paper. She could feel her heart beginning to race just by touching it. Her head began to hurt as she held it in her hand. It was like she had discovered the locked door in her brain that blocked certain memories. And this scrap of paper was the key to the lock. She had found what she was looking for.

'But what do I do with it? How can I use it to unblock my memories? What do I have to do? Once again, I have more questions than answers....' She thought with a frown. Almost as if it was trying to help, her subconscious leaked another fragment of a forgotten memory. 'Sachiko.....we beg of you....' She studied the scrap closer. "Sachiko, we beg of you?", she murmured. "Where have I...?" Then she gasped, her eyes widening as the door in her memories was forced open. All her memories came flooding back to her. She remembered the Sachiko-Ever-After charm. She remembered her friends: Seiko Shinohara, Morishige Sakutaro, Mayu Suzumoto, their teacher Ms. Yui, Satoshi Mochida, his sister Yuka Mochida, and Yoshiki Kishinuma..... She remembered Heavenly Host Elementary. She remembered everything.

"Run Shinozaki! I came back to rescue you, dammit!" Yoshiki yelled, standing against the screen-like door, trying to hold it closed. There was blood covering one side of his face and his right eye had been slashed. "Run!" But Ayumi was frozen in place, Yuka on her back. "Shinozaki!!! I love-" He was cut off by a knife stabbing through the door and through his stomach, pushing his intestines out a little bit. "Gah!!" They were pushed out the rest of the way, splattering onto the floor. Ayumi screamed out of horror and fear, "Kishinuma-kun!!!" He wrapped his arms around his middle and gurgled out a response. "R...un....." She stared at him. "What?" He lifted his head and yelled one last time. "RUN!!!", was his final word as a hand smashed through the back of his head and out through his mouth. His body fell lifelessly to the floor, his brain half out of the hole in his head. Ayumi screamed his name....

Tears fell down Ayumi's cheeks as this final memory played in her head like a movie, the scrap of paper slipping out between her frozen fingers. "Kish....inu...ma....kun..." She whispered, her voice suddenly hoarse. "Kishin....uma...kun..." She started to cry into her hands. "Kishinuma-kun...." Her crying turned into full sobs. "Kishinuma-Kun!! I'm so sorry!! You died horribly because of me...me and m-my stupid charm...." She gasped as she felt like someone had just squeezed her shoulder. She wiped her eyes with a soft hiccup. "K...Kishinuma?", she whispered. She got another squeeze in response. "My death was my doing, Shinozaki.....I chose to follow you....I tried my best to save Yuka and I failed....don't blame yourself for any of this......you didn't know any of this was going to happen...none of us did....", his voice whispered into her ear. "None of what happened was your fault....we all agreed to do the charm...it wasn't just you...you had good intentions...." She picked up the paper scrap and quickly put it back in the shoebox she had found it in. "I need to talk to Naomi....now...." She left the room and after telling her mom where she was going, she went to Naomi's house.

Naomi was laying on her bed, staring at an odd scrap of paper she had found in her desk. She wasn't psychic like Ayumi was but even she got a bad feeling from it. It was so strange. It was just a scrap of ordinary white paper but it seemed to be filled with dark emotions and feelings. It slightly unnerved her. She looked up in surprise when Ayumi entered her room. "Sh-Shinozaki? What are you doing here?", she asked. "I need to talk to you..." Naomi looked at her curiously. "About what?" Ayumi sighed. "I....remember...everything...", she said softly. Naomi frowned. "What do you mean by 'everything'?", she asked, confused. "The people we thought we knew, what happened to them, why it happened.....", Ayumi answered sadly. "They were our friends and one of them was our teacher...they all died...horribly....one was hung, one was literally splattered against a wall, one was stabbed in the back of the neck, our teacher was crushed, one bled to death after she was stabbed in the stomach after her one eye was removed, one died protecting me....he was stabbed and then his skull was smashed....and the last one most likely bled to death after he lost his forearms and hands...", she continued, her voice almost a whisper. Naomi stared at her in horror. "H-How..? How did that happen and why?" Ayumi looked at her shoes in guilt. "Because of...me..."


	3. Candles. Nice.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Seiko comes up with a plan to help Naomi....with Satoshi's help of course...

The next few days went by without anything bad happening to Ayumi or anyone else. This made her somewhat happy because she didn't have to worry about being injured but at the same time it made her feel sad. Kishinuma had stopped talking to her since she wasn't in danger. She would never admit it to anyone, not even to herself, but she missed the sound of his voice. She missed him being alive mostly. She missed all of her friends, of course, but for some reason she missed her blonde classmate the most. She remembered that out of all their friends, she hadn't gotten that close to him. He had been that friend that got on her nerves constantly.. She had considered him a jerk and had tried to ignore him most of the time. Well, to be honest, she had been pretty nasty to him on occasion. He had rarely retaliated, though she had known that he had been capable of being a real douche. But only when she pushed the right buttons too many times, had he yelled back at her. He had been known for his temper, but it had rarely been directed at her for some reason. She remembered him accidentally upsetting her on multiple occasions then trying, in his own way of course, to sooth her. She remembered blowing her nose in his shirt once or twice when he was alive.

She kept remembering his death, the memory replaying in her head like a loop. The guilt she felt was overpowering. If she had never suggested they do the Sachiko-Ever-After charm....her friends might still be alive. They would have never gone to that cursed school. They wouldn't have been killed one by one. So many terrible things wouldn't have happened to them. The only bad thing that would have happened would've been Mayu moving away. That was nothing compared to what had happened. At least then Mayu would have been able to visit and keep in touch with everybody. That will never happen now. Nothing like that would ever be able to happen again.

She grabbed some of her special candles out of her closet, went outside, then lit three of them. She watched the orange flames dance with their warm light, remembering the ones she had used in that cursed school. She took several deep breaths, trying to clear her mind. She watched the flame move back and forth, it was almost hypnotic. Her mind was empty as she watched it. For a few seconds, she was at peace with herself. Then she heard her sister call for her and she got up off the ground and went to run back inside, unknowingly knocking over one of the candles. The grass quickly caught fire and started spreading slowly. By the time Ayumi returned, half the yard was on fire, causing her to scream loudly. Her sister Hinoe ran outside after hearing her scream. "Ayumi, what's wr- Oh my God!!", she yelled. She stared at the burning yard in horror. "What happened?!" Ayumi swallowed. "I don't know! I lit some candles before you called me, maybe one of them fell over! Let me check, I promise I'll be careful Onee-chan!", she yelled to her sister before going to where she left her candles. It was there that she discovered the fallen candle. "So, it did fall over...but now what do I do?! The grass is on fire!" She said to herself anxiously. She gripped at her hair with both hands. "What do I do?!"

"I would suggest putting the fire out...", the voice she had missed hearing whispered to her. "K-Kishinuma-kun! B-But how do I do that? It's so big!", she whispered back. "Hmm....I guess you could try kicking dirt onto it....", He suggested, his voice thoughtful. "But there's a lot of fire! Would that work?", she asked back, looking around at the spreading flames. "Kick it on as much of it as you can, then get out of here! Let your sister call the fire department or something so they can finish the job before it reaches your house!" She was frozen in place, her eyes watching the flames with terror in their depths. She couldn't move to even attempt trying to put the fire out. She suddenly found herself lifted off her feet and in the "bridal style" position without being able to see what was holding her. She could feel him though. She could feel strong arms holding her against an invisible chest. Once again she felt deja vu from being held like this but of course, she could already remember when it had happened and why it had happened. She blinked and then found herself out of the fire and being placed back onto her feet by the back door. Hinoe must've went inside to call the fire department because she wasn't outside anymore. "Nice job at doing your best to help..", Kishinuma whispered to her sarcastically. She felt herself flush out of embarrassment, unable to come up with a decent response. Her sister came back outside. "Ayumi, are you alright? You ran into the heart of it without giving me time to respond to your words! That was incredibly stupid and reckless! You could have been seriously hurt! Thank God you got out of there safely! Come, let's go inside quickly and wait for the fire department to come.", her sister said, her eyes wide and fearful. "Yes, Onee-chan..I'm sorry for being reckless but I saw that I did cause this! The fire started from one of my candles being knocked over!", Ayumi said back as they headed inside. "I know it was an accident, Ayumi. I'm not mad at you but I do wish that you would be more careful..."

"I'll try to be more careful from now on...", Ayumi said softly. Hinoe nodded back with a smile. They sat together in the living room and waited for the fire department. Once they arrived, Hinoe directed them to the backyard then left them to do their thing. She went back and sat beside Ayumi again in silence. For Ayumi, the silence was heavy and oppressive, pushing her down like a twisted version of gravity. She felt like she was struggling to breathe and she felt hot and uncomfortable. She tried not to move around in her seat too much, which would have caught her sister's attention and caused her to worry even more than she already was. She wished the time would move faster or for her sister to say something. She wished for anything that would end this horrible silence. Anything at all. Thankfully, the fire was put out before Ayumi could lose her patience or her mind. The fire fighters left shortly after, giving Ayumi what was left of her candles. She ran upstairs in an attempt to escape the awkwardness she felt. She threw the melted candles into the closet then flopped onto her bed on her back. She felt a weight settle on the foot of the bed, so she could guess who was there. She sighed, wishing she could see him. "Are you okay, Shinozaki?", his voice whispered to her softly. She gave a nod in response. She decided not to share how she felt about all this. It might anger him, if she remembered his personality correctly.

The next day Kishinuma had a meeting with Satoshi and Seiko about their two living friends. "Naomi still doesn't remember anything that happened. She believes what Shinozaki told her, but she doesn't remember herself...:I'm not sure if she will ever remember....", Satoshi reported with Seiko nodding in agreement with his words. "Shinozaki remembers and I think that makes her sad....she accidently set her backyard on fire yesterday because I think she was thinking about everything and wasn't paying attention...I have a feeling that she's blaming herself for all of this...even though I already told her that it wasn't...", Yoshiki told them with a sigh. "That sucks, man.....I wish we were alive and could support them better than we are able to now...", Satoshi grumbled. "Yeah! Being dead and unable to be supportive and let Naomi know that we're here with her sucks! It just freaking sucks!!", Seiko chirped unhappily. Both boys nodded, agreeing with her. They all sighed, wishing they were alive again. "Somehow, you two have to get Nakashima to remember....Try triggering a powerful memory....that worked with Shinozaki...maybe it will work with Nakashima too...I mean, it's worth a try, right?", Yoshiki said to them, thinking as he spoke. "I guess we could try that...what do you think Shinohara?", Satoshi said softly. Seiko thought for a moment, weighing the pros and cons equally. If Naomi remembered, then she'd remember them and would know that they were there with her. But on the other hand, if she never remembered...would Naomi be happy or would she always have the feeling like something was missing from her life? Finally, she came to a decision. "We'll try it...We have to get Naomi to remember...we just have to!!"


	4. Naomi Remembers

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Just as the title of this chapter says....Naomi remembers...

Naomi sat in her room, turning the little scrap of paper over and over in her hands as she stared at it. Everything Ayumi had told her was still fresh in her mind. But, she couldn't remember anything that her friend had described. She didn't remember any of the so called "Friends" that Ayumi had named....and described their deaths. She didn't remember a cursed school or a friendship charm. She couldn't remember anything like that happening. Was Ayumi crazy? Under normal circumstances, Naomi would have accepted that explanation and just moved on but at the moment...that explanation didn't make sense. That explanation didn't explain where the paper scrap came from or why it was so familiar to her when she couldn't remember seeing it before. It was just an odd situation on all accounts, she supposed. Nothing about this made even the littlest bit of sense to her. She sighed and laid on her bed, the scrap still in her hand. Her head was starting to hurt the more she thought about everything. She was so confused. She closed her eyes, and tried to just forget about what was troubling her, but she couldn't. She put the paper scrap on her nightstand then went to bed. She had a dream that night. The dream was very odd and had a memory-like feeling to it.

Naomi was standing inside of a wooden bathroom that was falling apart. One of the mirrors was cracked and there were odd noises coming from one of the stalls. She went over and opened that stall to find a girl, wearing the Kisaragi uniform, hanging from a noose. She was making odd gurgle noises and clawing at the rope. Her eyes were bugging out and staring right at Naomi. Naomi watched in horror as the girl choked and struggled, fighting for her life. "N...N...aom...i..." The girl gurgled at her. Naomi screamed and left the bathroom, trying to find something that would help her get the girl down. Outside of the bathroom, she found a rusty bucket full of rotting meat and maggots. She gagged as she dumped it onto the floor with a disgusting splatter noise, maggots getting all over her hands and skirt. Swallowing the bile in her throat, she carried the bucket back to the stall only to drop it out of shock. The girl was swinging in her noose, her eyes bugging out and her hands lifeless at her sides. The girl was dead. Naomi screamed. "SEIIIIIIIIIIIII...."

"IIIIKKKKOOOO!!!!!!" Naomi screamed as she woke up from that horrible dream. That girl...she looked very familiar, like Naomi had known her at one time. "Seiko..." She muttered. "Wasn't that one of the names Shinozaki mentioned?" She yawned and looked at her clock, revealing that it was four in the morning. She sighed and looked up at the darkened ceiling of her bedroom. "Why is this happening?", she groaned. She closed her eyes to try and fall back asleep. Again she had a dream, but this one was short and she soon forgot about it. In the dream she saw herself and Ayumi sitting on the floor in their classroom, each holding a hand that was connected to an arm that had been separated at the elbow. It was just the forearms, there was no body attached. Even so, the only thing she remembered from the dream was the name 'Satoshi'.

The next day at school, Naomi confronted Ayumi and told her about her dreams. Ayumi just nodded gravely. "Shinohara Seiko was the one that was hung...she was your best friend Naomi..you two were closer than anyone I had ever seen....and Mochida Satoshi didn't make it back alive....the only thing that left that school were his hands and forearms....the rest of him stayed behind and I guess he bled to death..", she said sadly. Naomi swallowed, her face pale. "I still can't remember them, Ayumi...no matter how hard I want to.....no matter how hard I try to...I just can't....", she whispered. "It's alright Naomi. You will one day, I promise...you just have to wait, I guess...I remembered so you should be able to too...", Ayumi said with a soft smile. "I hope you're right...." Then the bell rang and the two took their seats. Once Ayumi went home, she sat down at her desk and started sketching a picture of her 'guardian angel'. She drew each detail as accurate as she could. The shape of his eyes, the way his lips curled when he smirked, the way that he stood, or the way his hair was a perfect mess. She sketched his nose, the way his uniform hugged his sides or the way his pants had looked on him. She sketched him straight from her memory, seeing him in her mind as she sketched. He watched her draw from over her shoulder, impressed with her skill and with how accurate the drawing was. It really did look like him, even to the finest detail. Before she put down her pencil, she gave him a pair of angel wings as a final thought. She signed the paper and hung it on her wall. She looked at it and sighed. "If only I could actually see you..." She murmured to herself.Then she went downstairs when her sister called her down for dinner. Kishinuma looked at her other drawings, many of them of people that she knew or people that she had seen but never met face to face. 'Wow...she's really good at drawing...her drawings are so life-like....I don't know what else to say about them...' He thought to himself. He sat on the floor in a corner of the room and waited for her to come back upstairs.

Back at Naomi's house Seiko and Satoshi stood behind Naomi's chair while she ate dinner. Her mother noticed the troubled look on Naomi's face and wondered what was bothering her. "Ne, Naomi? Are you alright, sweetheart? You look like something is bothering you...", she said with a concerned tone of voice. "I'm fine Mom.....I just have a lot on my mind, that's all..." Naomi replied, looking down at her plate. "Well, okay....just remember that I'm here if you need to talk about anything at all..." Naomi nodded. "I will.." Seiko squeezed one of Naomi's shoulders, but Naomi didn't feel that or Satoshi doing the same to her other shoulder. She couldn't feel them or hear them at all. She emptied her bowl then went back upstairs to her room. She thought about her dreams, especially the one of the girl. She could feel a building pressure in the back of her mind, but she had no way to get rid of it. She could feel it building and building and building. It felt like a large creature trying to force a locked door open with sheer force alone. When suddenly, the 'door' burst open revealing the secrets behind it. Naomi fell to her knees as her memories were returned to her. "Ne, Naomi~!", Seiko chirped as she tackle-hugged her best friend from behind, almost knocking her over. "Seiko! I told you to stop doing that!" Naomi protested, causing Seiko to giggle happily. "Sorry Naomi~ But I just love you so much~!"Seiko said with a laugh. "Seiko, you don't just say things like that!", Naomi protested with a blush. Seiko just laughed. The memory changed to one of Seiko and Naomi inside Heavenly Host. They were walking around the hallways, Seiko supporting Naomi because Naomi's ankle was broken. Both were trembling from the horrors they were witnessing as they went. "N-Naomi, what are we going to do! What if we die in here?!" Seiko said with genuine fear in her voice. "Seiko, calm down...I'm sure we'll find a way out of here, okay?", Naomi replied, trying to keep the fear out of her voice. "Together.", Seiko agreed. The memory changed again to a fight between Seiko and Naomi over something meaningless. Seiko and Naomi were separated in that horrible place. Leading up to Naomi's dream, which in reality was actually Seiko's death. Naomi remembered all her memories of Satoshi and their other friends as well as finally remembering her other dream, which depicted Satoshi's death. Naomi gasped as she came back to reality. She burst into tears at the memories swirling around in her head. Her best friend had died because of her. She had led her to killing herself and she couldn't save her. So what kind of best friend did that make her? She felt terrible as she was overcome with guilt. "Seiko....I'm so sorry....please...please, forgive me! SEEIIKOO!!!!" She sobbed into her hands."SEEIIKOO!!!! Please, come back...." Seiko knelt next to her friend, although she knew Naomi didn't know she was there. "Naomi....it wasn't your fault....there's nothing to forgive, trust me...I was as much at fault as you were...I love you Naomi....", she whispered softly. "Me and Satoshi both love you....no matter what..."


End file.
